“Oh my gosh, it’s a lifesaver,” Jones told Rothstein. “I can’t live without it anymore. It’s just, they have all this stuff, very expensive stuff that the trainers around the world, they have. It just gets circulation [going]. You have a knot, it’s a massager. It’s a stimulator. It’s everything to get your muscles performing.”

The TheraGun, and similar devices like TimTam, are reportedly becoming popular tools for loosening tight muscles. Rothstein quotes NFL stars like Patrick Peterson and Andy Dalton in singing its praises, before explaining how the device was created and how it became popular among pro athletes.

As Rothstein notes, NFL players are largely willing to try anything that might give them an edge, in performance or recovery. All sorts of questionably effective cure-alls, from K-tape to Q-Ray bracelets, have gone through similar fads.

But TheraGun is at least loosely based on therapeutic massage, and at the end of the day, players will do whatever makes them feel ready to play.

If it actually helps injured players get back on the field faster, or so-called healthy players like Jones (nobody’s healthy eight weeks into an NFL season) stay at their best, these devices enable better football for us.

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